as in, I may as well start there. I’m a cradle Catholic (although I prefer the term “lifer”), a revert. For the past five years I lived in a part of the country where 1) Catholic life was pretty pitiful-- scandals, no real sense of community, etc.-- and 2) where the only really lively spiritual life was found in places like yoga centers and ashrams. My closest friend, an atheist Jew from my hometown, joined a cult there. He is in love with his guru, says he’s very happy, and keeps daring me to argue with him. So I am looking for people who have experience dealing with loved ones in cults. This cult, incidentally, borrows paragraphs from Teilhard de Chardin.
The specific question of the day: do human beings have a divine nature?
Can anyone help me out here?

cults, an all encompassing obsession of mine, since i left one in october '04. we dont have a divine nature, although my cult told us that if we “mingle” with god we can join him and become divine in some sort of way. my cult focused on witness lee and watchman nee, by the way. and whatever you do, dont argue with him, as i found i couldnt effectively argue with the cult.
the way cults work is that reasoning goes out the window, because the group presents itself as an authority figure, as know-it-alls, and people like me just suck it right up without a second thought. one way humans are easily influenced to see and accept another side of a religion/argument that they might not usually accept is because the group presents itself as a higher authority than any other church, as an expert. You’d listen to an expert, wouldn’t you? He becomes imbrewed in that style of argumentation and adopts it for himself and cannot, will not take no for an answer. he has been taught there is no other alternative, and therefore anyone outside the group is wrong.
Got any other questions, I’ll answer them, since I did all this research and figure I need to utilize it somehow. hope this helps a bit.

First- what is important is that you understand your own faith, even if you cannot help your friend.
He has asked you a question that is bothering you.
The way a catholic would answer this question may sound similar to the manner in which a new ager would answer - but the difference is substantial. ( I have a friend who is into TM)

God created man in “our” (plural- alluding to the Trinity) image - in the image of the Trinity.
Male and Female He created them.
The trinity is a communion of persons.
Human marriage and family is a communion of persons.
There are many gifts God has given to humans that reflect back on the image of God…but only because God came FIRST and CREATED it this way so we could come to know Him.
Jesus is divine and became man. In doing so He blessed humanity and made us holy.
He gives Himself to us in the eucharist. When we receive Him, we allow the Divine to intermingle with our created being.

A new ager would tell you that God exists within His creation - that this creation IS God.
Because we are part of this creation - we are also divine.

This is just a tiny portion of their take on this- but it is the impression my friend has given me.
She believes there are divine creative forces in all of us and throughout all created material.
I say the creator exists apart from the creation.

all cults rely on replacing Divine authority with human authority. All heresies begin the same way. God revealed Himself to the Jewish people. The history of that revelation is recorded faithfully in their Scripture, which we call the Old Testament. the OT foretold the coming of the Messiah, the completion of God’s Revelation, to the Jews. Many Jews accepted Christ when He came, claiming to be that Messiah and the very Son of God. some rejected Him, in in so doing were forced to delete or rewrite part of their Scripture, again relying on human authority of some of their rabbis in the early centuries of the “common era”. Christ established His Church on earth to perpetuate His saving action in the Paschal Mystery so that all could participate in it sacramentally, so that all could hear the proclamation of the Gospel and be saved. He gave his authority to preach, teach, forgive sins, heal, drive out demons and confect His sacramental presence in the Eucharist to men whom He chose and prepared personally. He gave them authority to choose, prepare and ordain others for these tasks. They have done so down to the current age, and His authority is to this day wielded authentically and validly only within the His Church, the Catholic Church (and by those the Church acknowledges as preserving that apostolic succession, namely the Orthodox Churches).

From the earliest days of the Church heretics, magicians, people on the make have rejected the authority of Christ and relied on human authority to rewrite and redefine Divine Revelation. The most dramatic of these in terms of impact on human history were Mohammed, and the Reformers of the 16th century. The correct question to any adherent of a cult, or a heresy, or of a protestor is “by what authority do you teach?”

I don’t have specific answers but I do know that Catholic Answers puts out many great apologetics books. For exeample there are nine booklets (all about 40 pages long) the first is Beginning Apologetics.
Look for it in the Apologetics section of the Bookshop on this website www.catholic.com.

They also have an apologetics book on New Agers etc. This might also help. But first, know your faith. Immerse yourself. Pray for Mary’s intervention and pray the Rosary. But know your faith.

i really disagree with some people are saying here: to argue/discuss the points your friend brings up about his cult and your religion. Trust me, it will not work. He’s a parrot, he will repeat whatever he has heard because that’s the only proof his leader has given him to disprove any religion he could come across. It will hit a deadend.